Visit With Ethan

Before we headed off to Thailand we stopped in California to spend a couple of days with Ethan.

 My boy has grown so much in the last year!

We rented bikes and cruised around Newport Beach. I liked looking at all the houses as we rode through this alley way.

We biked down to a donut shop and had donuts. Ross and Robert got cronuts. I had a bite. I'll admit, it was buttery-damn good. After our donuts we watched the sunset.

Of course we played legos with Ethan and had lego battles between our creations. This is Ethan's robot creation.

I was so happy to be able to spend time with Ethan. I hope we will see him again soon.

Castello di Amorosa

Our excursion to the Petrified Forest was a bust--the trails were closed due to flooding.  I decided we could check out the Castello di Amorosa winery because it was close by and had Gewurtztraminer.  The winery really does have a full-on castle.

 View of the castle and some of the vineyards.

 View from a castle loop hole of the valley and an olive tree.

 View from the castle restroom.  It reminded me of the views from Neuschwanstein.

It had been raining, but the skies cleared up for our visit to the castle.  The courtyard area was still wet and Ross and Ethan played ninjas or something in the big open area.

We paid $18 for 5 tastings.  Three of my tastings were of Gewurtztraminer.   Ethan got to have Gewurtztraminer juice.  Apparently that was as good as the wines--Robert and Ross tried it, but I didn't.  The sweetest Gewurtztraminer was a hit with everyone, and if I didn't have to mail it back to myself or check a bag I would have bought a couple of bottles.  I probably would have bought some of the juice too.

Friday in San Francisco

I got to San Francisco around lunch time and I took the BART to town. I got off right into the Westfield Shopping center.  I started shopping, but decided I had to eat first.

I ate under this dome, which was beautiful until the light shows began.  It made it look so cheap when it turned red and blue or snowflakes were projected onto the dome.

I had a chicken and mushroom open faced sandwich and only ate two bites of bread.  I totally resisted the pastries at La Boulange (where I had lunch).  It was a miracle.  I had tea instead of coffee.  They gave me a tea bag in a regular glass with warm water.  The coffees looked so pretty, but I got a cup of pale tea.  Oh well.

I did some tea shopping, and waltzed over to Nieman Marcus in the rain to buy something I've been wanting for a while.  I then hopped back on the BART to get up to the Ferry Building.

I walked all up and down the Ferry Building and the smell coming from Acme Bread was killing me.  It smelled so luscious, but I was trying to be good.  Ross met me there at the Ferry Building. I ended up breaking down and getting Mac and Cheese and steamed vanilla milk from Cowgirl Creamery and shared them with Ross.

I also bought lots of tea at Imperial Tea.  And I bought some bath salts to use on the trip.  Oh, my bag when I got to San Francisco weighed 14 pounds!  My shopping added to that and I ended up putting things in my bag in my bag.

I think this is the best photo I took all weekend.

After the Ferry Building it took us almost 2 hours to get onto the freeway.  Rush hour traffic, holiday traffic, and lack of signs made for a grumpy couple heading up to Napa.

Waiting in Lines

We ended up waiting in a lot of lines in California. We did not enjoy that.
1. We waited in line for half an hour before the all-you-can-eat restaurant, Makino, opened.
2. Since we got into the restaurant the same time as everyone else we had to wait in line inside to go through the sushi part of the buffet line. We were not impressed.
3. We waited at least 30 minutes for a table in a small Taiwanese restaurant. Again, not impressed.
4. During the wait for the small Taiwanese place we walked over to Wholesome Choice, an international food store where we saw people waiting in line for up to 40 minutes for Persian Sangak bread. Really? People in California seem to like waiting in lines.
5. We had to wait in line to take the sloooow hover tram up to Getty Center. Not bad, but just another line to wait in. I really didn't want to wait in line for the ride down, so despite my desperately sore feet we walked down the hill.
6. We also waited in line for 30 minutes for boba at Half and Half Tea House. Now, I'll admit that the boba was pretty good, but a 30 minute wait? Our friends actually said to never go to a place unless there is a line out the door. Talk about hype. Reminds me of when Sprinkles opened in Dallas. You stand in line forever for a cupcake so it has to be good, right? Most of their cupcakes were oily and never worth a wait.
7. We also saw a huge line (out the door) at 85C Bakery. I was looking in the window and a guy walked up and said "It's just bread, right?" I nodded. He obviously didn't want to stand in line, but his mother was caught up in the hype and insisting.
8. Memorial day we were pretty much spared lines. We only waited 2 minutes to be seated for our brunch with Dishi and Josh in Oceanside (best pancakes ever!) And we managed to talk Robert and Tiffany out of waiting in line to ride the big orange balloon at Great Park in Irvine. We were tired....no more lines!
9. We waited in line for a taxi for 1.5 hours? I think I'll do another post for that one....

More Photos from Cali

Getty Center

Last Sunday we went to the Getty Center in L.A. It was a neat place with museums inside and gardens, fountains, and sculpture outside. We saw some very nice sculptures in the museums and some famous paintings, including Van Gogh's Irises--which was neat to see in person, but wasn't my favorite painting in their collection. The gardens were really awesome--as were the views from the Center.

My Boy, Ethan

Here are a bunch of photos of my boy, Ethan from our California visit.

Year of the Zoo: San Diego

We went to the Denver Zoo in March and when making plans recently I realized I'm going to visit quite a few zoos this year. I declared this year of the zoo! Yesterday we went to the San Diego Zoo with Ethan, Tiffany, and Robert. We were there a long time, but didn't get to see the whole zoo! I got some great photos and we got to see animals we'd never seen before--like a porcupine!

The porcupine ran into his cave and we thought we wouldn't see him anymore, but he ran back out. Yes, ran. And he put on quite a show.

Ross is getting better with the camera. He took this great photo of a big cat that we could barely see in the back of his enclosure.

 Green tree snake.

Kolala and  baby. Lots of the animals were napping.

The peacock also put on quite a show.

My favorite animal was the tiger. I got a few great shots of the tigers.